Pineland Mystery Bone is from Monk Seal
Now-extinct Animal was at Pineland 1,650 Years Ago

by Karen J. Walker

Exciting archaeological discoveries often
happen long after the excavation tools are put away. This
is one reason why museum collections are so important. A
case in point: In 1990, volunteer excavators at Pineland's
Operation H unearthed a two-inch-long, odd-shaped bone
from a large mammal. "Probably one of those funny ankle
bones from a deer," one might have said to the other. This
would have been a reasonable guess, because bones of
white-tailed deer are usually the only large-mammal bones
found at Pineland. The odd bone was placed in 1, i iI1,
many other bones -mostly from fish -and sent to the
field lab. There, another volunteer cleaned the bones and
yet another cataloged them. Later the bag made its way to
Gainesville and settled in the basement of the Florida
Museum of Natural History. Not chosen for immediate
analysis, the bones were carefully stored for future research.
Some years later, a UF ,' 11i1 I 'i" ..1 .-- student was assigned
to search through the bag (and many others) to study the deer
bones. When he compared the odd bone to those from a
modern deer skeleton, there was no match. If it wasn't deer, what
was it? A comparison with all other possible candidate skeletons
ensued. There were no matches, at least not at the Florida Museum.
I suspected that we had a bone from a Caribbean Monk Seal, the
one Florida mammal for which the museum has no representative
skeleton. Sadly, this native, tropical seal became extinct in the mid
twentieth century, and only a few
individuals were ever collected for
study. An internet search determined
that the closest skeletons were in
Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian's
National Museum of Natural History
(NMNH). To confirm the identifica
tion, we would have to compare our
bone with theirs. Meanwhile, more
similarly odd-shaped bones surfaced
in an old collection from Sanibel's
Wightman site.

Finally, an opportunity for a trip to the Smithsonian presented itself.
In September, 2004, collections manager Charley Potter guided Bill
Marquardt and me through the NMNH's
skeletons as we worked to identify
the Pineland and Wightman bones.
We quickly saw that our Pineland
bone was indeed from a Caribbean
Monk Seal -specifically, it was the
Fourth metatarsal from a left hind
S' continued on page 2

flipper. Most of the I'., i ,ii bi ones were fragmented and more difficult
to identify, but as luck would have it, Peter Adam, a University of
California scientist proficient in monk seal osteology, was present that
day. With his help, we identified about a dozen of the bones, all likely
from one individual.
So, how and when did an isolated monk seal bone come to rest at
Pineland? The bone lay between a late Caloosahatchee I period Indian
midden (about 1,650 years old) and a layer of mangrove muck. Above
the muck is a younger Caloosahatchee IIA period midden (about 1,450
years old). The muck layer occurs across much of the Pineland site at

Artist's rendering of a post-storm scene
at Pineland with a drowned monk seal
on the beach (illustration by Merald Clark,
developed for Calusa Heritage Trail).
.........................................

Nearly the same elevation. In several
"" excavations, the layer was underlain by a
thin, intermittent layer of articulated sea
shells, bones, and sea urchin parts -the
S,, remains of animals that are often carried in
by a storm surge. These are about 1,650
S years old, indicating that the storm may
L have impacted the people who lived there.
.. Bones of at least one loggerhead sea turtle
S - and one bottlenosed dolphin indicate that
Sthe surge was powerful enough to drown
these animals-powerful enough also to
drown a seal. Human survivors of this storm
might have taken advantage of the seal (and other food resources that
the surge left behind), butchering it and leaving behind the back
flippers. This is only one possible scenario, and artist Merald Clark
depicted it for an interpretive sign, now installed along the Calusa
Heritage Trail at Pineland.
Perhaps one day volunteer excavators will find more of the seal
skeleton. For now, at least we know that monk seals once swam the
waters near Pineland some 1,650 years ago.

New and Renewing Friends of the RRC
from January 1 to March 21, 2005
(Please let us know of any errors or omissions. Thank you for your support!)

At long last the official website of the Randell Research Center is
online, providing visitors with a range of easily accessible information
about the RRC and its programs, including current news and upcoming
events. The site was originally designed by Amanda Jenkins of J and J Web
Design on Pine Island, who additionally maintains the official website for
the School District of Lee County. Considerable assistance was also provided
by Sarah Fazenbaker, webmaster for the Florida Museum of Natural History,
which hosts the RRC website. The Museum will continue to feature an
extensive online web page dedicated to the Southwest Florida Project,
including information about the RRC, but the new dedicated RRC page will
appear at the following URL: www.flmnh.ufl.edu/rrc/
The website includes information about visiting the recently inaugurated
Calusa Heritage Trail, along with details about the mission and history of the
RRC and its programs, the Friends of the RRC membership organization,
volunteering at the RRC, and an order form for RRC books and merchandise.
Online resources about local Calusa prehistory, history, and environment
will be supplemented in coming months with new information, and the site
also features a news page with links to past newsletters and press releases,
photo galleries, and a page announcing upcoming events at the site and local

e ---- -

It-
-- .. -----n-e-t--- h h

..... ...... .............. ....... ... ........ .. .
--- -.r-
-

Welcome page for the new RRC website.

public speaking engagements across Southwest Florida. The site even includes
an online form to ask questions or request additional information.
The RRC website will of course be an ongoing project, and will only expand
and evolve from this point onward, but we are pleased to announce the launch
of this new internet presence for the Randell Research Center. We welcome
.*..-..- .i -iii. i 1 .1. as for the future development of our web page.

Pineland Site Visitorship Soars on New Calusa

Heritage Trail

by John Worth

In the three months that the Calusa Heritage Trail has been
open daily to the public between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., public visitation at
the Pineland site has soared, with scarcely a day passing without visitors
walking the pathways and enjoying the Southwest Florida winter climate.
In the past, public tours were offered only once a week on Saturdays, or by
appointment to other groups, but now that the site has regular hours and
a self guided walking trail, it is almost always being enjoyed by couples,
families, or other small groups. The parking area is rarely empty, and many
guests take advantage of the picnic area to have lunch under the blue skies
and soaring ospreys. Public tours are still offered, now every Wednesday
at 10 a.m. during "season" (January through April), and groups can also
schedule tours at other times. Many guests at the Tarpon Lodge across the
street also take the opportunity to walk the trail, which is as notable for
its archaeological features and interpretive signage as it is for its natural
beauty.
RRC Operations Manager Craig Timbes, ably assisted by volunteer Terry
Pierce, is shepherding the site's rich natural vegetation through its gradual
recovery from Hurricane Charley, and with their efforts the site is becoming
ever more visitor-friendly, with broad open vistas of the site's mounds,
canals, ridges, and abundant flora and fauna. Not only have both existing
osprey nests destroyed by winds last summer been reconstructed and re

Nesting pair of ospreys at Pineland (photo by Terry Pierce).

occupied by their inhabitants, but a third nesting pair of ospreys has set up
housekeeping in a tree along the ancient Pine Island Canal, and all three
nests are soon to be home to new hatchlings, which visitors can watch grow
and eventually fledge this coming spring.
We invite all members who have not done so already to come and
rediscover the Pineland site along the new Calusa Heritage Trail.

If Y

fu II

New Map of Sixteenth-Century

Pineland to be Presented

New Information Makes for Revised Interpretation of Calusa Town

by Bill Marquardt and Karen Walker

On May 14, 2005, at the 57th annual meeting of the Florida
Anthropological Society in Gainesville, Merald Clark, John LoCastro,
Darcie MacMahon, John Worth, and we will present for the first time a
revised map and interpretations of what we think the Calusa town of
Pineland looked like at the point of Spanish contact. Our new map is
based on excavations, interviews, aerial photographs, and recently
discovered documents.
In 1999, archaeologist Phyllis Kolianos found an unfinished Florida
manuscript of Frank Cushing's in the Smithsonian's National
Anthropological Archives. Contained within it was a much longer
and more detailed description of Pineland than had been published
by Cushing in 1897. Phyllis also traveled to the Southwest Museum in
Los Angeles, where she found two sketch maps of Pineland drawn by
Cushing. She found a third map of Pineland at the Brooklyn Museum
of Art. The new documents are now available in a two book set published
by the University Press of Florida.
Thanks to Phyllis's excellent detective work, we all have much more
information on what Pineland looked like just before the twentieth century
began. Adding this new knowledge to our previous data, we now envision
a much more complex Pineland site and a reposi
tioned canal route. John LoCastro of Synergy Editor:
Design Group digitized our new map and modeled William M
it in three dimensions. This helped us to select Writers:
views to be transformed by Merald Clark into William M
scenes of sixteenth-century Pineland life. These Karen Wa
are featured on the interpretive signs of the Calusa John Wort
Heritage Trail (see Friends of the RRC Newsletter Production:
Vol. 3, No. 4, December 2004). GBS Proda

Three-dimensional interpretation of Pineland by John LoCastro, based
on new topographic map drawn by Karen Walker and Bill Marquardt.
....o ........................................................" ".......

You are cordially invited to join, or renew your membership in, the RRC's support society, Friends of the Randell
Research Center. (Current members can find out when their memberships expire by looking at the address label on
their newsletter.)
All Friends of the RRC receive a quarterly newsletter and free admission to the Calusa Heritage Trail at Pineland.
Supporters at higher levels are entitled to discounts on our books and merchandise, advance notice of programs, and
special recognition. Your continuing support is vital to our mission. It means more research, more education, and contain
ued site improvements at the Randell Research Center. Thank you.

" Supporter ($1,000-$4,999): The above + listing on
annual donor plaque at Pineland site
Sustaining Members ($5,000-$19,999), Benefactors
($20,000-$99,999), and Patrons ($100,000
and above) receive all of the above + complimentary
RRC publications and special briefings from the
Director.
Please use my gift to obtain matching funds from the
I i ili 1 Endowment for the Humanities.

Seasonal Address (so we can send you your newsletter while you are away)

Name

Address

City / State / Zipcode

Use my seasonal address from

(date)

(date)

The Randell Research Center is a program of the Florida Museum of Natural History, University ofFlorida.

8E

BOOKS ON SOUTHWEST FLORIDA'S ARCHAEOLOGY & HISTORY
it The Calusa and Their Legacy: South Florida '
People and Their Environments
by Darcie A. MacMahon and William H. Marquardt
U. Press of Florida, hardcover $39.95
Culture and Environment in the Domain of the Calusa
edited by William H. Marquardt; Monograph 1, softcover $25.00
Sharks and Shark Products in Prehistoric South Florida
by Laura Kozuch; Monograph 2, softcover $5.00
The Archaeology of Useppa Island
edited by William H. Marquardt; Monograph 3, hardcover $35.00, softcover $20.00
New Words, Old Songs: Understanding the Lives of
Ancient Peoples in Southwest Florida Through Archaeology
by Charles Blanchard, illustrated by Merald Clark
hardcover $24.95
softcover $14.95
Fisherfolk of Charlotte Harbor, Florida
by Robert F. Edic
hardcover $35.00
AWARD-WINNING VIDEOS FROM THE
FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
The Domain of the Calusa: Archaeology and
Adventure in the Discovery of South Florida's Past
VHS video $19.95
Expedition Florida: From Exploration to Exhibition
VHS video $19.95
Expedition Florida: The Wild Heart of Florida
VHS video $19.95
Expedition Florida: Wild Alachua
VHS video $19.95

Total for items ordered:
Friends of the RRC who give at the $100 level
or above may deduct 20% Discount:
Florida residents add sales tax:
Shipping: Add $2.00 for first item,
$0.50 for each additional item:
TOTAL ENCLOSED: